Now is the Time to Get Your Family on Board with a Smart Holiday Plan

If you’re honest, I am confident you would tell me that you wish you could spend less around the holidays. This has nothing to do with being a Scrooge. But you also know from experience, that you end up spending way more than you intended. Not necessarily because you were extravagant. Quite often it’s just the sheer number of people in your life that you exchange gifts with, that can add up.

What Every Woman Needs to Get Schooled On.

When the American College of Financial Services recently quizzed retirement-aged people on the basics of how to make their money last, just 35 percent of men passed the test. As troubling as that is, only 18 percent of women passed.

What to Do With an Unused Gift Card

I hope your friends and family hit the bull’s eye with your gifts this holiday season. But I bet there are many of you who received a gift card (or two, or three) that you don’t have a burning desire to use. As much as you love the sentiment of the gift giver, perhaps you just don’t need-or want-anything from the particular retailer your gift-giver chose.

Why ETFs Are The Best Choice For Your Retirement Investments

You know I am a big believer that a Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is the best way to save for retirement. And for my money, I think Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are an ideal way to invest the money in your IRA.

How to Wring More From Your 401(K)

You may have heard or read recently about some high profile retirement plan sponsors being sued by plan participants for high fees in the plan. Financial service firms-yep, folks who run mutual funds-have been hit with lawsuits, as have the plans run by MIT, NYU and Yale.

My House Rules for Boomerang Kids.

More adult children are living with family than at any time in the past 60 years. Whether your twenty-something bundle of joy is back home (or never left!) because you’re a better roommate with better digs, or because they have yet to find a career job, you still need to lay down some financial expectations:

Money Lessons Every Parent Needs To Teach This School Year:

It’s that time of year again: back to school. While I know there are legions of amazing teachers waiting to educate your kids, I need you to step up and do some important teaching that most schools drop the ball on: personal finance.

Teach your Children Well-Part 3: Give Your Kid’s Credit

Young adults are making a big mistake with their finances. Survey after survey reports that most millennials do not have a credit card. I am wholeheartedly on board with preferring a debit card. But everyone needs to also have a credit card and use it responsibly.

Money Gifts to Kids: 3 Rules Every Parent Must Follow

As we are heading into the holiday season, I know plenty of kids will be receiving a check from a grandparent, aunt or uncle. So I want to review how every family with kids under 18 should handle financial gifts year round.

3 Rules for Doling Out Allowances

Parents, we have a problem. So many of you make a mess out of allowances. You reward the wrong thing, and totally miss out on the big picture: beginning to teach your child about the value of money.
Here are my 3 Suze-Approved Rules for Allowances:

Five Easy Moves to Save At Least $100 a Month

I’ve spent a lot of time poring over the finances of families who come to me for help. No matter what problem they are trying to fix, a universal step in my review is to go through their monthly spending in detail and show them how trimming back on certain expenses can add up to substantial savings.

The Massive Mistake 4 in 10 Parents With Young Children Make …and how to fix it in four easy steps

A new survey makes me sad, mad and very nervous. According to Bankrate.com, 37% of parents with children under the age of 18 have no life insurance. And even the parents with life insurance aren’t really protecting their family, as one-third have policies with death benefits that do not exceed $100,000. That may sound like a lot of money, but it’s woefully little once you sit down and run the numbers.

A Message for Husbands: Your Wife Should Drive the Retirement Planning

One of the most common things I hear from many couples is that the husband likes investing and planning, and thus wives are all too happy to let him handle the retirement strategizing.
Big mistake.
Not because I am doubting the skill and intentions of men. Rather, my concern is that it’s women who typically are the most at risk in terms of retirement security for a very simple fact: Women tend to outlive men.

The Four Steps to Retirement Saving

Saving for retirement is a no-brainer. But knowing the smartest ways to do that saving is anything but easy to figure out, given all the choices. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Here’s exactly what you should do, in the order I list:

Suze Orman's road rules for car buying

The car you're driving could be driving you into poverty, says Suze Orman. While lenders are relaxing terms and offering longer periods for borrowers to pay, Orman is sticking by her rules of the road.

Suze Orman: Don’t put your retirement on a credit card

As the economy slowly recovers, Americans are struggling to get out of credit card debt they amassed during tougher financial days...Out of desperation to stay current, or to rid themselves of their debt, people are looking at their retirement accounts as a cash source. But Suze Orman says that's the biggest mistake you could make.

The 8 Qualities of a Successful Life

Years ago, after my first book came out and I had made a few television appearances, I was nearly accosted on the street by a very animated woman who kept pointing at me and then exclaimed "I know who you are... you are the... Money Lady!" I've adopted that as a nickname of sorts. I am indeed the lady whose passion is to help people make the most of their money.